Power Query: Get Pasted – Part 1
19 October 2022
Welcome to our Power Query blog. This week, we present an alternative approach to a one-off data grab from the web.
Today, I venture into Power BI. The task is to get a list of presenters, languages and times from the recent Excel Virtually Global 2022 event. This data is not going to change; the event is over.
Since the data is on the web, I could start with the ‘Get Data’ dropdown on the Home tab:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/./image1-1666088437.png/e904b0b6430de7aec669ef0f9840a7f1.jpg)
Here, I locate the Web option:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/./image2-1666088469.png/f97dd4d0b47abf023a969db407aa4051.jpg)
The URL comes from the website page :
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/./image3-1666088487.png/a007120a7451261bf77356f36ca6bff7.jpg)
I enter this URL into the ‘From Web’ dialog:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/./image4-1666088510.png/7a756e085f39b8b1501a0208f21de4e0.jpg)
I am prompted for the connection criteria; I choose to ‘Use anonymous access for this Web content’.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/./image5-1666088532.png/838897c495face0eccce431c6557fee9.jpg)
Then I wait for Power BI to connect:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/./image6-1666088551.png/0893b1ce0e44ea34defbe17d383e22d1.jpg)
When the Navigator dialog appears, I can see there is a table, so I select this and choose to ‘Transform Data’:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/./image7-1666088570.png/b5a59402b10cc0e29667d838e3db5ba0.jpg)
However, this does not give me the data I need:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/./image8-1666088615.png/ef3a08eb56ebafa6be79a7fded040bd6.jpg)
As this is not something I am planning to refresh, since the event has now ended, I can approach this another way. I delete the query Table 1.
In the Power Query editor, I locate the ‘Enter Data’ button on the Home tab:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/./image9-1666088639.png/f44738212f960996e36851192627c996.jpg)
This presents me with a new blank table:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/./image10-1666088655.png/609be1c5715dda04fc2ac8d55b26fadc.jpg)
I go back to the website and copy the data from the table:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/./image11-1666088680.png/c6d953d6de8fb4ae717710e506fd146f.jpg)
I can then paste the data into the ‘Create Table’ dialog:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/./image12-1666088725.png/ee3ddb69e48c2634d3da408b80806faa.jpg)
The data is all in one column, but at least I now have the presenter names, languages and times.
Next time, I will transform this data.
Come back next time for more ways to use Power Query!